Milton's Places of Hope: Spiritual and Political Connections of Hope with Land

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Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006 - Literary Criticism - 225 pages
In early modern culture and in Milton's poetry and prose, this book argues, the concept of hope is intrinsically connected with place and land. Mary Fenton analyzes how Milton sees hope as bound both to the spiritual and the material, the internal self and the external world. Hope, as Fenton demonstrates, comes from commitment to literal places such as the land, ideological places such as the nation, and sacred, interior places such as the human soul. Drawing on an array of materials from the seventeenth century, including emblems, legal treatises, political pamphlets, and prayer manuals, Fenton sheds light on Milton's ideas about personal and national identity and where people should place their sense of power and responsibility; Milton's politics and where he thought the English nation was and where it should be heading; and finally, Milton's theology and how individuals relate to God.

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Contents

Hope Land Ownership and the Paradise Within
36
97
141
Myself Am Paradise Hope Land and Redemption
159
Epilogue
193
Index
215
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About the author (2006)

Mary C. Fenton is Associate Professor of English at Western Carolina University, USA.

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